Shadows of War
by rebelrabbit
Summary: For every Tyrant, there is a Hero, and for every Hero, there is a Team that aids him. Jack, a good-natured man with a hidden past, leads an elite team against Team Shadow, a criminal organization that rose from the ashes of its predecessors. Faced with impossible odds combined with a changing world, only one thing is certain about this war. No one and nothing will be left the same.
1. The Breakout

**Hello and welcome to Shadows of War, before the story starts I want to explain some things.  
This fic takes place in a heavily altered universe loosely based off the games, meaning that the events of the games have taken place, but much of the world's history before then has been scrapped and re-wrote. This starts in 2037 and takes place primarily in the Johto region. Technology wise, advanced non-pokemon robotics are in development, Translators are a dime-a-dozen (just assume everyone has one unless otherwise noted), and most 'modern' firearms are replaced with newer, fictional models (but look pretty much the same). I think that's it, lore and whatnot will be revealed as the story progresses.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, but you're smart, you knew that already**

 **Update: 8/4/15: Overhauled almost the entire chapter, made it significantly less horrid. Also changed the summery**

* * *

"Keep moving."

The guard that said that roughly shoved Jack forward, nearly causing him to stumble into the guard in front of him. Jack let out a small snarl through gritted teeth. "Shouldn't have tried to break in here dipshit", the guard continued. Jack was currently being led down a narrow, dimly lit hallway towards the edge of an illegal prison used to impound half-breeds and renegade pokemon. He had a pair of handcuffs around his wrists and a gun pressed against the back of his head.

Jack examined the guard in front of him. He was wearing a dark purple long-sleeve shirt with a small green 'S' stitched onto the left shoulder, dark blue jeans, and some basic body armor that covered his chest. On his hip was a holster with a pistol inside it and an AK-74 in his arms. He was, as far as Jack could tell, in his mid-to-late 40's.

"I WAS moving, I was simply turning around to look at where I was," Jack spat.

"Can it," the rear guard said as he pistol-whipped Jack in the back of his head, causing him to fall over. He quickly got up and resumed marching, not wanting to give them any more reason to get angry. After a few minutes of walking, they came upon a small room with what appeared to be see-through holding cells. All of them were barren, although some had what looked like dried blood on the back of them.

"Sorry you'll be all by yourself, but we gotta keep the normals and the freaks separate, to much drama," the guard in front said, cringing at 'drama' like he's had bad experiences with the two groups in the past.

"Heh, a Shadow grunt saying sorry, never thought I'd see the day," Jack chuckled before taking a fist to the face. Team Shadow was slowly built up from the tattered remains of many other 'Teams' before it, and as per usual they were hell-bent on conquering the world. The main difference being that they've kept they're existence low-key, with only the well-informed knowing about them.

"I don't know who you are kid, but you just launched yourself up to number one on my shit list," a guard said as he rubbed his knuckle.

"Don't know who I am?" Jack said with fake surprise, "maybe I'll just have to show you."

Jack lunged forward and drove his knee into the grunt's stomach, causing him to double-over in pain. The other grunt whipped around and leveled his rifle at Jack, firing a single shot. Jack winced in pain as the bullet tore through his shoulder, but ignored it as he moved to try to take the gun from the grunt, a feat made difficult due to his bindings. He eventually wrenched the gun away and shot a short burst at the gun's previous owner. He took the pistol from the corpse and turned to the other grunt, who was on the floor and soaking himself in terror.

"W-what are you?" he said shaking with fear.

Jack sighed with a slight bit of irritation, "Almost five years of this bullshit and I'm _still_ unknown? Oh well," he shrugged before shooting the grunt clean through the forehead, painting the tile floor red, "makes my life easier."

"What the FUCK is with this shooting?!" a voice boomed from the hallway, "I thought I told you dickwits NOT to kill the hostages before they can be evaluated!" A third grunt, slightly beefier grunt stormed into the room and stopped when he saw the bodies of two of his comrades. "What the fu-"

He was interrupted when Jack suddenly appeared behind him and used his handcuffs to choke him. The grunt was losing the struggle, and with one last jerk, Jack snapped the grunts neck as well as breaking the handcuffs. He let the body drop to the floor and quickly took the pistol from him, pulling a small device from the side of it. The device was a disintegrater, used to destroy the gun its attached to should it's operator perish.

"So much for plan A," Jack mumbled before picking up one of the guards' comlinks. After changing it to a channel used only by his group, he spoke into it, "Mira, do you read me, what's your status?"

There was a bit of static before a reply came through, "One of th...umbass guard...ipped an EMP gr...de and fri...the whole room, caus...all the...ell doors to open"

"Well that's convenient" Jack chuckled, ignoring the heavy static that was blaring in his ear.

"Yeah,...ky these thing...re hardened, but I can te...ts not going to...ast long, I can bar...ear you, so I'm mo...towards the courtya...ith the prisoners."

"Alright, I'll see you there, be careful," Jack pocketed the com and started running down the hallway he came in, gun in hand. It wasn't long before he reached the doors to the courtyard, but stopped when he saw that it was very heavily guarded, almost 20 guards mixed with a few automated turrets that were activated from the alarm he just now noticed.

 _'Not getting out that way,'_ he thought. He quickly backpedaled and turned down another hallway, hoping for an alternate way through. _'I just hope Jenice_ **(Author's Note: pronounced "Jeniece". Lets just say her parents misspelled her name on the paperwork)** _will get here before everything goes to hell.'_ He soon found a window that led outside and wasted no time opening it and diving through. He scanned the courtyard for hostiles and was surprised to find none. _'Must be guarding the exits.'_

A door on the wall to his right opened, causing him to swivel towards it. Out of it stepped a Mega-Banette half-breed, wearing body armor that was made out of her own shadow. Besides the slightly demonic-looking armor, she looked like a human-shaped M-Banette, with a black dress-like outer skin that covered her purple body. The dress had zippers on the sleeves and front, exposing her hands and legs up to her knees, respectively. At the top of her neck her dress fused with her head, which was black in color, excluding her deep purple eyes, a golden zipper that replaced her mouth, and an equally golden zipper that ran from her right eye down to the tip of her chest-length 'hair' that was made of the same outer skin that covered most of her body. She saw Jack and ushered him over.

"13 prisoners, all half-breeds, and all doing relatively well, at least physically" she reported.

"Happy to see you too babe," Jack joked.

Mira rolled her amethyst-colored eyes at his response while giving a slight chuckle. "We should at least get out of here before joking around." She then looked at something in the distance, "Shit."

"What?", Jack asked as he looked over to where she was looking. He saw that a helicopter was taking off and turning to face them. He and Mira dived for a small brick wall that was part of a half-built storage shed as the gunship fired its dual miniguns. One bullet pinged off of Mira's shadow armor while Jack was hit twice in the back. He ignored the pain as he blind-fired at the heli, waiting for his injuries to regenerate.

"Jenice, we need evac right fucking now," he yelled into his comlink.

* * *

"C'mon c'mon c'mon c'mo-AH dammit!"

Jenice slumped into her seat in defeat, letting the handheld she was playing drop to the floor. "I HATE escort quests," she grumbled. Jenice was an average Mismagius in appearance, except her dress had thin stripes of green towards the edges, which were red in color instead of the usual light purple. Others sometimes joked about her red-green-purple coloration, but she didn't care as the dress was a gift from her boyfriend. She thought it looked good on her anyway.

Her job was to take the group to and from mission sites, being the only person on the team that knew how to drive something other than a car, a fact that she had mixed feelings about.

She pushed her hat up out of her face and got out of her seat to check on the craft she was in. It was an SC4-class Skyranger, a newer iteration of a popular line of quick-deploy-and-extract VTOLs. It consisted of two parts, the cockpit and the cargo bay. The cockpit was where the controls are, and was also the butt of many jokes told by bored pilots. The cargo bay took up almost the entire craft, which wasn't much room in actuality as the craft was only 28 feet long and 20 feet wide. The bay was large enough to hold a dozen or so people, or a small vehicle and a handful of soldiers.

This particular craft was outfitted with military-grade sensor-jamming technology, reflective armor plating for extra durability, kinetic shields that shrug off small-arms fire, and two undermounted turrets for offense. It even had cupholders. These modifications, and it's pilot, gave birth to it's nickname, the Phantom.

After giving the craft a thorough check-up, she "sat" back on the pilot's seat.

"I swear to Arceus I'm going to beat this damn thing one day," she mumbled as she picked up the handheld and restarted the game.

"Jenice, we need evac right fucking now," a voice yelled over the radio.

Jenice instantly dropped the handheld again and started priming the Phantom for take-off. "On my way Jack, ETA three minutes" she replied.

* * *

The helicopter-gunship continued to dump dozens of bullets a second into the brick wall that Jack and Mira were hiding behind, unable to flank the two due to space constraints.

"Evac is in three minutes, lets hope we can down this bird before then" Jack yelled over the constant drone of the miniguns while taking pot shots at it. He slapped the empty mag out of his gun and slid a fresh one in."where are the prisoners by the way?"

"They're in the hallway out of danger," Mira yelled back, "don't worry, they're armed"

Jack nodded in response and took a peek out of cover, pulling an 'oh crap' face as he saw that the prison guards were pouring out of the opposite wall. He fired a few shots at the crowd, killing three and wounding another. He took another bullet to the shoulder, but it healed after a few moments, bullet dissolving into nothingness.

Mira too was firing at the crowd with a UMP that she had 'liberated' from an unfortunate guard. After a few moments her gun stopped shooting with a click, signifying that it's mag had run dry. She tossed the gun aside and focused her energy, forming a shadow ball in both hands. Most half-breeds had very limited control over their abilities, but she was well trained by her father, and thus was able to use moves with a little concentration. She stepped out of cover and chucked them at the crowd, one missing and hitting the ground but another hitting a grunt straight in the chest. He lied on the ground screaming in agony as the mildly-corrosive spectral energy burned through skin and muscle.

Jack shot at the gunship again, all his shots plinking off it's reinforced armor. He was about to move back into cover when the heli's cockpit window suddenly imploded with a thin trail of blue trailing from it, causing it to spin wildly out of control and slam into the ground, erupting into a ball of flame as the fuel tanks caught on fire and ammunition exploded.

"You're welcome," a voice said in Jack's comlink.

Jack pulled out the device and responded, "Tyraan? I thought you were back at the house with Melissa and Arc."

"They decided to explore the forest, I had a feeling you needed help so I came here on the bike, and lo and behold."

Jack chuckled a bit, "Well thanks, it was getting to be a pain in the ass."

There was a small chuckle before Tyraan resumed, "I'm heading back now, cant see anything from this vantage point, see you at the house."

Jack pocketed the comlink just as Mira spoke, "That was Tyraan?"

"Yeah," Jack replied, firing at the crowd of soldiers in the courtyard.

"Damn weavile always has to make a flashy entrance doesn't he?"

"Yeeeeeah," Jack sighed as he put his last full magazine into the gun. He looked at his watch and noted the time, "Jenice should be here right about..."

He was interrupted by two red streaks of energy rushing overhead and impacting on the ground, creating a small explosion and wiping out a group of guards.

"Now"

The Phantom gently lowered itself in front of the wall, its engines spewing flame and it's turrets firing more blasts of energy in defense.

Mira ran up to the doors where the group of prisoners were and shouted for them to get on the skyranger, which they were hesitant about. "It's alright, it's friendly and will take you out of here," she reassured them. One by one they made a mad dash for the Phantom, most tripping over themselves in fright. Once the last prisoner was on board, Jack and Mira climbed on and closed the bay door and sat in some seats on the side of the bay. The Phantom slowly rose up, its grey body simmering with light-blue energy as the kinetic shield deflected the incoming attacks.

"Whelp," Jack said as he leaned back, "that could have gone better."

"Yeah," Mira said as she gripped the sides of her seat as the Phantom took numerous large hits, "at least the people are safe and out of that hell-hole."

"That's what confuses me," Jack said, slightly swaying as the Phantom accelerated past the sound barrier, "why would they want these people?"

Mira shivered, "Arc did some snooping around the city and found out that those WoP freaks are still paying for torture play-things"

Jack shivered as well, he hated to think just what they do in their free time. "I'm gonna go talk with Jenice about where to drop them, could you go check up on everyone?" he asked as he got up.

Mira sat up as well, "I can do that"

"Thanks Mira." He gave her a brief one-armed hug before departing for the cockpit. He slid into the co-pilots seat and asked Jenice where the group was going to be dropped off at.

"Well, according to Arc and Melissa the TS found out about the airstrip, place is sealed up tighter then a nun's asshole."

"Damn" Jack said as he pondered other drop points. The airstrip was out, the news station was under repairs because some guy pissed off an onix, and taking everyone to another region was out of the question. "How about the Farm? It's a ways away from the city but at least it's something," he proposed.

Jenice face-palmed (face-sleeved?) herself, "Why didn't I think of that?" She adjusted course towards the farm, and in 10 minutes they had arrived.

"Alright everyone" Jack said as the Phantom descended, "you are free to go, but I must warn you, Team Shadow MIGHT be looking for you, so I'd be careful." Everyone nodded and stepped out of the Phantom once the cargo bay door opened.

"Thank you for freeing us" said a green-haired woman as she stopped in front of Jack and Mira. Her features shifted slightly, revealing that she was actually a Gardevoir with a psychic disguise. "My son and I...we were so scared about what they were going to do to us" she blinked to fight back tears, "they said they were going to sell him to some terrorists, simply because his father is a human." Her voice was cracking from the fear of loosing her son. "Then, once he was gone, they said they were going to..." she tried, and failed, to hold back her tears, "they were going to use me, remind me that my family was gone, they were going to torture me for who knows why." She then looked up at the two and smiled, "But you two saved us, and I am forever in your debt." She took out a piece of paper, scribbled some numbers on it, and handed it to Jack. "If you ever need help in your efforts to save others, do not hesitate to ask" she said with a smile before resuming her disguise and walking out with her similarly green-haired son.

Jack looked at the phone-number, then looked at Mira, looked back at the paper, then back at Mira, "I just got some chick's number."

Mira was trying her very hardest not to burst out laughing, although her cheeks were a dull purple. "I think she likes you, maybe you should call her sometime," she joked.

Jack face-palmed,"If you're mouth wasn't already a closed zipper..."

* * *

 _In the year 2024, the last surviving criminal group, Team Rocket, was struck the final, fatal blow when its leader Giovanni was killed in an explosion, which finally ended their reign of terror for good. Since then, the world has enjoyed relative peace as no criminal organizations were trying to conquer it. The remains of all the world-wide 'Teams' were collectively known as the Remnants, and were slowly but surely hunted down by the WPO and several mercenary groups. However, as of 2032, several Remnant factions, comprised of Rocket, Plasma, Galactic, and even Snagem, have been seen cooperating and assisting each other frequently. The World Peacekeeping Organization denies the rumors of a whole new 'Team' forming.  
_

Blasting Off Again, a History of the World's Criminals- written by Eric Cornhow

* * *

 **Questions about the story? Comments about my writing? Just want to senselessly flame? Drop a review or a PM.**


	2. The Team

**Another chapter up, another chance at sleeping down**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, but I DO own OC's**

 **Update: 8/4/15: Removed some things that the new first chapter made redundant.**

* * *

The Phantom was flying towards the house at a leisurely pace, no one in any particular rush to get home. Jack was idly browsing the internet on his phone, Mira was stitching together some holes in her dress where bullets narrowly missed her, and Jenice was quietly raging over the game she was playing, not even paying attention to the flight path.

Jack looked over at Mira, who seemed to be having trouble getting one hole to be seamless. "Couldn't you just fix that with a potion or something?" he asked. The outer layer of skin that served as a dress lacked nerve endings oddly, meaning that is could be repaired with either medical supplies or sewing tools.

"I would if they didn't reek like a sewer," she responded without looking at him.

Jack nodded in understanding, potions didn't exactly have the most pleasurable of smells. Just as he was about to go back to browsing, he felt the Phantom lurch downward and to the left, nearly rolling out of his seat. He stumbled over to the cockpit and sat down in the co-pilot seat.

"Jenice," he asked, "what the hell are you doing?"

"Getting food," she replied simply

"Er, wouldn't it be better to get home first, _then_ food?"

"Nah," she said, "I feel like eating now. Besides, I want to see if I can parallel park in this thing."

Jack let out an exasperated sigh as his head hit the control panel.

* * *

Jack had his face buried in his hands while Mira was looking quite embarrassed. They were back on the Phantom after taking a detour to a fast food place.

"That was...an interesting few minutes," Mira finally said after several moments.

"Hey, look on the bright side," Jenice said in between chewing mouthfuls of churro, "taco place gave us free churros. Free. Churros."

"But you caused a block-wide panic and made everyone run like Darkrai itself was there"

"All I did was ding the side of the building a little," Jenice said defensively.

"And knocked over a street light. And set a squirrel on fire with the engine flames," Mira rebutted.

"Okay okay I admit it! It wasn't the best landing ever," Jenice said, throwing her arms up in the air in defeat.

"Why did you even want to go? You don't even _need_ to eat anyway," Mira pressed, but as soon as she said the words she regretted them.

Jenice shrank back into her seat with a hurt expression on her face. She was always sensitive about her un-living status, especially things that made her "un-normal" no matter how hard she tried. "Well, yeah, but..." her voice trailed off.

"Jenice, I'm sorry I said that, I forgot how deeply you feel about things like that," Mira apologized, "being physically incapable of eating, or doing anything involving a mouth for that matter, makes me a little insensitive about it."

"Mira wouldn't intentionally hurt your feelings Jenice, you know that," Jack added in, "we all forget things from time to time."

Jenice slowly nodded in understanding. "I can see where you're coming from," she said, though it was obvious her feelings were still hurt, "I'm going to go sit up front." With that last sentence she floated towards the cockpit, churro in hand.

Mira looked at her friend float away with a twinge of guilt.

"Maybe you should go talk to her," Jack suggested, "you two haven't exactly hung out much lately anyway." Mira was Jenice's best friend, next to Melissa.

"Yeah, I'll do that," Mira agreed, getting up out of her chair, "maybe I can also get it to not be such a touchy subject."

"You're a better therapist then I am," Jack said as he took a sip of soda.

Mira laughed slightly as she slid into the co-pilot seat, "Hey, you okay?"

Jenice was vacantly staring out the front windshield, absentmindedly tapping her churro against the steering wheel.

"Jenice, I'm sorry, really, I didn't mean to say that."

Jenice sighed and turned towards the side window, watching the clouds pass by. "I just want to be normal, at least a little," she said with a pained tone in her voice, "I died when I was seventeen, that's not really a long time to just, you know, _exist_."

"But is it really something to be depressed over? I can understand why you might miss living, but..." Mira's voice trailed off. She suddenly had a thought, "How long has is been anyway?"

Jenice looked at her confused, "What do you mean?"

"How long has it been since you, well, died?"

She looked at the floor, ashamed of the answer. "Twelve years," she squeaked out.

Mira slowly shook her head, "If it's been that long, then all the more reason to stop being sad over it."

Jenice sighed heavily before nodding, "Yeah I know, but part of me just wants to pretend like it never happened. To deny that I'm just a ghost with a hat." She slumped back into her seat again, "I don't want to forget who I am, who I _was_."

Mira shook her head again, "You're not a damn Yamask Jenice, you don't need to cling to little things to remind you who you are. _You_ remind you who you are."

Jenice silently stared out the window for several minutes before responding. "Yeah, you're right," she said as she turned back to Mira, "It's been twelve freaking years, I shouldn't be getting mopey just because someone says that I don't need to eat. The more I think about it, the more ridiculous it sounds"

Mira smiled at her friend, "I'm glad. I hate seeing you depressed, it's the complete opposite of your usual self."

Jenice took a bite out of her churro before speaking again, "Now I almost feel bad about eating in front of you, seeing as how you literally cant eat.. Almost."

Mira rolled her eyes, "You're a real good friend to me, you know that?" Her words were practically dripping with sarcasm. "I stopped being jealous when I was ten-ish anyway."

Jenice tapped her half-eaten churro against her chin in thought, "Hey Mira, how old are you anyway?"

"Twenty-four, why?" Mira answered, slightly confused.

"Lets see..." Jenice started thinking, "You're twenty-four, Arc is twenty-six in 'mon years, Tyraan is almost thirty in 'mon years, Melissa doesn't count...I died at seventeen, and I've been a ghost for twelve years since, so that's twenty-nine, add on the supposed ten years I was out before 'waking up', so that's thirty-nine...I'm the oldest one on the team except for Jack," she said with enthusiasm, but then quickly sank lower into her seat. "I'm the old lady of the group..." she said sadly, "and then every man-year is four poke-years...twelve times four is forty-eight...plus the pre-pokemon twenty-seven...I'm seventy-freaking-five!" She hit her head against the steering wheel, "I'm _OLD_! I'm older then my grandmother! And I only lost my virginity last month!" She pulled her hat over her eyes, "I feel so sorry for my boyfriend..."

Mira slowly got out of her seat and scooted back out to the cargo bay, clearly weirded out by Jenice's sudden outburst. She sat down next to Jack and explained what happened, "Well, I managed to snap her out of her stupor and convince her to not be so sensitive, but accidentally somehow made her rant about how she's older then her grandmother and feels guilty about having fucked her boyfriend last month."

Jack blinked a few times, not fully comprehending what she just said. He repeatedly opened and closed his mouth, trying to say something, yet nothing ever came out. He eventually gave up and weakly nodded. He had mostly gotten used to Jenice's oddness, but some things still managed to leave him baffled.

* * *

The Phantom was slowly eased onto the helipad just outside the house, gently rocking on it's landing wheels. Jenice killed the engines and opened the bay door, letting it's passengers out. Jack stepped out of the skyranger and looked at the house. It was a standard, two-story, white colored house, the very definition of 'generic rural house'. Well, it would if it weren't for the helipad and Spec Ops-grade aircraft in the backyard.

"Whatch'a looking at Jack?" A voice said behind him.

"Eh, nothing Jenice, just zoned out a little," he replied, "besides, need some way to boost the word count."

Mira, who was the only one that was not carrying a bag of tacos, looked around in all directions. _I could have swore I just heard a brick wall collapsing_ , she thought as she scratched her head. After a few more moments she shrugged it off and caught up with the other two. The three of them walked through the back door to be greeted by a moderately sized kitchen.

"Back," Jack said simply, as if they want out for groceries rather then breaking into and out of an illegal prison.

"I was wondering when you three would be back," said a Weavile that was sitting at the dining room table. Tyraan was busy reading a book about a group of kids that can shape-shift into various animals. Appearance wise, he was rather ordinary, the only defining characteristics being a notch out of his right ear-feather and that he was missing the middle claw on his left hand.

"Jenice here," Jack replied as he nodded his head towards a certain Mismagius,"decided to take a detour and get tacos"

Tyraan's eyes went wide a little before he closed them and shook his head,"Oh dear Arceus, why does it have to be the insane one that holds the wheel to a high-powered military aircraft?"

"I'm not insane! I'm uh...I have a unique personality!" she said with a weak half-smile, which quickly turned into a frown as Tyraan deadpanned at her. "I'm playing Unreal," she huffed as she floated off, roughly putting her bag of tacos on the counter.

Jack shook his head and sat at the table on the opposite side of Tyraan, just now noticing what he was reading. "Wouldn't have thought you would've liked that series."

"Neither did I," he replied with a hint of surprise and amusement in his voice, "I was looking through the pile of boxes looking for an old cassette tape when I litterally tripped over this series, read the first one out of curiosity, now I can't _stop_ reading them."

"Well, you can have them if you want, I've already read them all twenty-something times," Jack said, "consider it a reward for taking down that chopper."

"Thank you Jack," Tyraan said as he turned the page, "oh, and I might have used up all of the bike's nitro. Again."

"Well that explains how you got there and back so quickly," Jack mumbled as he got up and went into the living room. There he saw Melissa watching TV.

"Hi dad," the Mawile said as she turned towards him. Jack had rescued her as a toddler five years ago, and since she has considered him to be her father, although he had initially opposed such labels as he 'doesn't know a damn thing about taking care of a kid, let alone one that's nowhere near being human'.

"Mel, you're a grown woman now, you don't need to keep calling me 'dad'" Jack said in a semi-serious tone.

"I know," she giggled, "I just like to annoy you with it."

Jack sighed and ruffled her hair, which was purple at the tips from being partially shiny. She squeaked and batted at his hand.

"You know my head is ticklish," she said, nodding her maw as if it was in agreement.

"I know," he said with an evil grin," I just like to annoy you with it."

"Heh, it's still funny just how alike you two are," said a voice as it came down the stairs.

"Hey Arc," Jack called after the voice. Arc was an Arcanine, but due to a genetic defect he was only half the size of a regular Arcanine, standing at a mere 3-1/2 feet at the shoulder and barely passing 150 pounds. Despite his abnormal size, he was perfectly healthy and was as strong, and sometimes stronger, as any other of his kind.

"Hey Jack, how'd the mission go?"

"Oh you know, run down hallways, blow shit up, take random people you've never met to places they've never heard of, the usual," Jack responded as he sat down on the couch.

"Eh, Tuesday already?" Arc said as he jumped onto the couch and laid down on Jacks lap.

"One would think," he said as he poked at Arc, "and you buddy need to lose some weight."

"Dick"

"You realize you're laying on _mine_ right?" Jack said as he poked Arc again

"Eh, no homo," Arc said as he stretched.

"Guys, please," Melissa pleaded, having a small blush.

"Melissa, I don't see how you could be embarrassed about that considering your _viewing habits,_ " Jack said

Melissa's blush widened considerably. "W-what are you t-talking about? W-what do you mean?," she stammered

Jack gave his daughter the 'you know what' face, "Mel, I've looked at your browser history."

Melissa's face resembled a ripe tomato as she buried it in her hands, while Arc was burying _his_ face into the couch cushion, his chest spasming from holding in laughter.

"Damn Mel," Arc laughed with tears in his eyes,"that was the absolute LAST thing I would've expected you to have on your computer."

"S-sh-shut up!" Melissa cried, voice cracking from the embarrassment.

"Relax Melissa, he's just messing with you," Jack assured, but then his voice went serious, "but really Mel, you need to delete that stuff, I understand you're old enough to think and act for yourself, but I don't like that stuff here, and that's the third time I've caught you."

"THREE TIMES?!" Arc howled, rolling off the couch from laughing, "even I'M not that much of a pervert." He then shakily got up and walked to the front door, still chuckling, "I need -heheh- fresh air"

With the room quiet again, Jack and Melissa turned their attention to the TV, which was showing an emergency news broadcast about the prison breakout earlier that day.

"Hey dad?" Melissa said, her voice still shaky. When Jack replied with a 'hmm', she continued, "A-are you going to be...going on any missions next week?"

Jack sighed and hugged his daughter, "Melissa, you know I wouldn't miss your birthday."

Melissa blinked away some tears," I know, but I just want to make sure, since...since you missed my last one."

A dagger made of raw guilt stabbed straight into Jack's heart. Last year he was on a special mission in the mountains in Sinnoh when a massive blizzard rolled through them, pinning him there for a month. He was planning on getting back after a few days, but the blizzard didn't let up until two weeks after her birthday. She was, understandably, devastated when he wasn't there. "I know Melissa, I know, and I feel horrible about it," he reassured her, "and I'll make sure that this year, not a damn thing comes between me and my little girl."

She just weakly nodded in response and sank deeper into his hug.

"Lets see," Jack thought out loud, "you're going to be turning five, which would make you, what, twenty? You'd be old enough to drink." he finished that last part with a chuckle. The two of them went back to watching the TV, which had finished the news broadcast and switched to a LOTR marathon.

* * *

Jack got up and stretched, having finally watched the entire marathon. He glanced over at the clock and noticed it said 10:30. He then looked over at Melissa, who had fallen asleep against the arm of the couch halfway through, with her maw covering her like a blanket. He picked her up and carried her to her room, which was upstairs with the rest of the bedrooms. He tucked her into her bed and quietly walked out of her room.

 _'Hard to believe she's only 25 pounds, with that giant head-mouth-thing of her's that's made of raw steel'_ he thought as he walked over to his room.

The door to Mira's room opened, her stepping out with a tired look in her eyes.

"What've you been doing in there all day Mira?" Jack queried

She massaged her right shoulder as she spoke, "Just figuring out ways to make everything work better, as usual. I think I found a way to improve Tyraan's Gauss rifle."

Jack let out a single laugh, "Because saying 'fuck you' to the laws of physics isn't enough?"

"Nope," Mira said with a smile, "anyway, I'm going to go take a shower, night Jack."

Jack gave her a small kiss on the cheek, "night Mira"

He went into his room and sat at the edge of his bed, staring at the wall that had various trophies from his many adventures. Among them was a small yellow cube that had ancient symbols on it, an assault rifle with a chainsaw bayonet, a sword made of pure energy, and even a strange nazi-made medallion that Jack _still_ didn't know how to work.

"Of all the adventures I've had," he whispered as he looked at the wall, "all of them feel hollow compared to this one. Where I have meaning, a purpose," he then walked over to the wall and picked up a picture, it being a group photo with the entire team in it, "and a family."

* * *

 _A man can conquer a city.  
A group can conquer a nation.  
A team can conquer the world.  
_

Giovanni, 1997, recorded by an anonymous Rocket soldier

* * *

 **Once again, reviews would be greatly appreciated.**


	3. The Dream

**Whelp, here's the next chapter, I would've had it up a week ago if Skyrim wasn't such a black hole that consumes all my time**

 **Non-Disclaimer: Some words I can never spell correctly the first time, like 'disease' or 'ridiculous'.**

* * *

 _I was violently thrown across the room and hit the far wall with a sickening crack. The metal wall had a new half-inch deep dent in it in the shape of my back._

 _"You dare defy your commander?!" shouted a powerful, booming ethereal voice._

 _I tried to pick myself up off the floor, but was pinned down when a field of psychic energy enveloped me. My tormenter walked up towards me and stood about a foot away from my face. It was a seven foot tall humanoid and was heavily muscled, which were easily seen as the only places it's silver-colored skin was was it's chest, knees and elbows, and the front and back of it's head. It knelt down to my level at looked into my eyes, although 'looked' wouldn't be correct at it had a completely featureless face._

 _"When I give you an order, you follow it without hesitation," it sneered._

 _"Go fuck yourself," I spat in the creatures 'face'._

 _It let out an angered snarl and glowed a faint pink as it psychically threw me against the wall again_

 _"Watch your tounge human, or I may cut it out," it coldly said as it grabbed my throat._

 _I tried to fight my way out of its grip, but after a minute I gave up on my futile effort. I scowled as the muscles on the sides of it's head widened slightly in victory._

 _"Good, your finally learning," its said in amusement, "I would have expected you to be more grateful for the gifts we bestowed upon you however."_

 _"I didn't WANT your damn 'gifts', and I sure as hell don't want to serve a colossal fuckwit like you!"_

 _It snarled again and hurled me into a display screen mounted on another wall. I screamed in pain as bits of glass and wiring tore through my back and shoulders while electricity pulsed through my entire body. I collapsed into a crumpled heap on the floor, bleeding severely from the numerous injuries, although I could feel them closing a short while later._

 _"Even now your wounds heal due to the gifts_ we _gave you," my captor said as it walked towards me, footsteps echoing slightly in the near-barren room, "without us, you would be nothing but a corpse"_

 _"Doesn't mean...I have to...appreciate it," I gasped, "in fact...I would prefer it...if you killed me."_

 _The being shook it's head, "No, you are far to valuable of a resource to terminate, you will live until I deem your life unnecessary or you fall in battle."_

 _I picked myself off the floor and sighed in defeat, knowing that I couldn't even hope to fight the thing in front of me._

 _It grabbed me by the back of my neck and forcefully led me out of the room. "Your combat experience will be tested now, as there is an assignment suitable for fresh Wanderers such as yourself."_

* * *

Jack snapped awake and quickly sat up, the blankets that were covering him getting thrown to the foot of the bed. He rubbed his face, trying to dispel the lingering effects of the dream, and looked at the clock which read 1:37 AM.

"Too fucking early," he mumbled as he walked towards the room's bathroom. He didn't bother to close the door as he turned on the sink and splashed water on his face. After drying off, he looked at the mirror above the sink. It reflected a man that looked to be in his early 20's, five foot four inches, medium build with black hair and piercing silver-colored eyes that were bloodshot, yet all Jack saw was a man haunted by the past and struggling with the present and future.

"Bastard has been dead for so many god damn years now yet he still worms his way into my mind," he said as he stared into the mirror.

He remembered all the things he was forced to do, all the people he was forced to kill simply because his 'commander' ordered him to. Pain, suffering, and murder dominated his life for who knows how long, and it sickened Jack to even think about it.

"Not anymore," he whispered, looking down at the sink, "No more senseless murder of innocents, no more rampant destruction...I have a purpose now"

Yet despite his self-reassurance he couldn't rid himself of the twisted feeling in his mind. He angrily sighed at himself as he looked at the mirror again. With a yell he drove his fist forward, ignoring the shards of glass that pierced his fingers as he shattered the mirror. He glared at his many smaller reflections before turning his gaze towards his torn and bloodied hand that had already begun to regenerate.

 _"Even now your wounds heal due to the gifts_ we _gave you, without us you would be nothing but a corpse"_

Jack washed off the blood and exited the bathroom, walking towards the window that was on the opposite wall.

"Is all that I have now really worth the price I had to pay?" he asked no one in particular as he rested his arms on the window frame.

"Jack, you okay?" came Mira's voice from beyond his bedroom door.

"Yeah, just getting fresh air," he answered.

She opened the door and stepped through, a look of concern on her face. "You don't _sound_ okay. And besides, you yelled and I heard glass break."

He sighed and looked out the window, seeing a few sleeping Pidgey in a nearby tree. How he envied them. "Just...remembering, about the past," he admitted.

Mira walked over and rested her head against his shoulder. "Was it Him again?" she queried. Mira was the only other one that know about Jack's past, including some of the things he did, and who made him do it.

"Yes," Jack answered as he wrapped his arm around her waist, "doesn't matter that I killed him and scattered his remains across half a continent, he always comes back to haunt me."

"Are you worried that They might bring him back?" she asked as she looked up at him.

Jack shook his head with certainty, "No, he was hated even by his own people, even if they could find enough to resurrect him, they wouldn't." He leaned back from the window and turned his head towards Mira, "I'm going to go downstairs and try to fall asleep again."

She lifted her head from his shoulder as she spoke, "I'll go with you, I don't need to sleep and we haven't spent much time together with everything that's been going on lately."

Jack chuckled as he pulled her closer, "Yeah, we haven't been together much since Shadow expanded outside of Goldenrod."

"Leave it to some world-domination obsessed bunch of lunatics to pull me away from my boyfriend" Mira snorted

"Everyone's been kind of strained lately," he said as he led her out the room and through the dark hallway, "Melissa's birthday is in a week though, we can all take the time to hang with each other then."

"She'll be so glad that you'll be here this year," Mira said as they walked down the stairs, "she was utterly wrecked last year, wouldn't stop crying for days."

"Mother Nature decided to piss on me," he grumbled, "can't really blame Melissa though, she had a very traumatic childhood."

"What exactly _did_ happen to her?"

"She doesn't want me to say," he quickly replied, "she'll tell everyone when she wants to."

"Alright, I can understand that," Mira said with a hint of disappointment in her voice.

Jack sat down on the couch, Mira doing the same, and turned on the TV. On it was a video biography about Red, although it was about 20 years out of date as it referred to him as still being alive.

"How exactly did he die again," Jack wondered out loud, "Lugia something?"

"Old Lugia went rogue and got in a big fight with Ho-oh and Zapdos basically and ended up destroying Mt. Silver in the process," Mira explained, "killed Red and most of his team except for Pikachu."

"Feel sorry for the shmuck, getting punked out like that" Jack said as he changed the channel. The news came on and it was a special broadcast.

"The Kalosian government has recently issued a code-orange nation-wide lock-down," the newswoman said in a professional voice, "travel to Kalos is prohibited except for Pokemon League and governmental officials, and all packages received from Kalos must be brought to your local customs office for inspection. The Kalosian government assures its international allies that the plague will soon be contained and travel and trade can resume normally."

Jack's eyes grew dark and filled with hatred as he listened to the news broadcast.

"'The rumors that the plague was the result of a biological terrorist attack are unfounded and utterly ridiculous' assured President Marquis," the woman continued, "and that the International Peacekeeping Corps need not get involved."

"'Biological terrorist attack?" Mira asked with shock, "not even TS would do something that."

Jack silently stewed in anger as he remembered the time when HE used bio-weapons when he was still a slave.

"Jack?" Mira asked, snapping him out of his thoughts, "What's wrong?"

"Jerusalem, 1974," Jack replied, his voice monotone, "I was sent there to hunt down a soldier that had escaped, like an earlier me. He had fled there as it was a relatively large city and he could hide easily."

Jack sighed as he continued. "I could've tracked him down eventually, but He didn't want to spend any length of time on it, so he ordered me to infect the city with a highly lethal and very contagious disease." Mira's eyes went wide as he finished his sentence. "I tried to resist, but he finally broke me down, and I reluctantly dropped the canister containing it right in the middle of the city. By the end of the week, over 70 percent of the population was dead, and it had even begun to spread to the surrounding countryside."

Mira stared at him in shock, unable to speak. He had always said that he did horrible things under servitude, but she never imagined he would be forced to commit mass murder just to get one person.

"Thing is, they never bothered to check to see if he had actually died, so millions of people could have died for no reason. People the **I** killed," Jack finished. He sighed and rested against the back of the couch. "I've done many horrible things in my life, and I simply wanted to bury it all. Leave all the hatred behind.

Mira slowly shook herself out of her stupor and wrapped her hand around his. "I would never hate you because of what you did Jack. It was in the past, and you're a better person now," she whispered, "I love you, nothing will change that."

Jack gave her a half grin as he gave her a kiss on the cheek, "Glad to know your forgiving of genocidal freaks."

She smiled as lied her head on his shoulder, "That Jack is long gone, the only one now is the kind and caring one I fell in love with a year ago."

Jack gave a soft smile as he wrapped an arm around her, "Love you too Mira."

They held each other for a while, forgetting the events and revelations of the night and simply enjoying each others company before slowly drifting into unconsciousness.

* * *

 _One side of the scientific community suggests that dreams are the product of an inner turmoil brought upon by severe emotional stimuli. The other half claims that they are repressed memories, things we chose to forget. I have come here today to lay this debate to rest.  
They are **both** true.  
_

Dr. Hugo Ivonis at the 1968 Unovan Scientific Convention

* * *

 **And the intro arc is done, now for the real meat of the story.**


	4. The City

**Whew, finally got this chapter done, and it's a big one. This would've been done sooner, but my new editor made me re-write the ENTIRE THING (pro tip: don't let your perfectionist girlfriend be your editor). Anyway, hope you enjoy.**

* * *

The room was almost pitch-black, the sole light source being the smoldering end of a lit cigarette. The figure holding it twirled it around his fingers and murmured in thought. Dismissing the thoughts in his mind with a shake of his head, he placed the end of the cigarette in his mouth and drew in a breath, causing it to flare in intensity briefly. He exhaled a plume of smoke just as the door in front of him opened, revealing a bulky human-shaped figure that was otherwise obscured by darkness.

"Sir," the figure reported, its voice identifying it as female, "the tracking beacon worked flawlessly. We have the exact location of the Resistance aircraft and, presumably, it's base. Shall we mount a full offensive strike to finally destroy them?"

The man, who was now revealed thanks to the light pouring in from the doorway, leaned back into his chair and stubbed out the cigarette on the ashtray sitting on his desk. "No," he sighed, his tired, aged voice carrying a bit of the irritation he felt, "they are few, yet strong, we might take them, but we would pay dearly for it..."

The woman, who's front was still hidden, stood at attention as she examined the room and it's occupant. The walls were a dull grey and completely devoid of decorations, giving it a depressing atmosphere. In the middle of the room was the mud-brown desk and it's owner, who was once again murmuring in thought. He had a stern, cold gaze chiseled onto his face, with a five-o-clock shadow coating his jaw. The other outstanding feature was his cybernetic left eye, its red iris faintly glowing. The man wore a brownish-grey business suit with the left sleeve cut off, as it would interfere with his cybernetic arm.

"Stay within observation distance from the Resistance base," the man finally said after several minutes, "gather intelligence on it and its inhabitants." His voice then lowered to a threatening growl, "but do not engage them under ANY circumstances, we cannot afford to lose the few advantages we have."

"Affirmative sir," the woman said with a slight bow, "we will recon the area and send regular reports on the daily activities of the Resistance."

"Good," the man nodded, "You will leave as soon as you and your squad is able. You are dismissed Agent G."

"Yes sir," G confirmed. She spun on her heels and set a foot outside the door before the man asked for her attention again.

"By the way, next time you contact your commander, send him my thanks for being able to enlist in your services. Your help has been...invaluable these past weeks." He gave a small, forced smile and ushered her out of the room. As soon as the door closed and the room was plunged back into darkness, he leaned into his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I pray that they will not become overzealous in their duties again," he whispered to himself as he took out another cigarette and lit it. "Lord knows we cannot lose our element of surprise, nor our opportunity for information."

* * *

Jenice's eyes slowly opened as she awoke with a yawn. She pushed the blue and purple blankets off of her, looked at the clock -which read 6:57- and got out of bed. She looked around her room in an effort to wake her mind up. The room had dull-brown walls with a matching carpet, a small TV in the corner with numerous game consoles hooked to it, and a dresser filled with stale air and dust from never being used. Lining the walls were posters depicting various music groups, movie posters 'permanently borrowed' from a theater, and (interestingly) photos of military aircraft. In one corner was a small room with a mini-bathroom in it, like all the other bedrooms.

Satisfied with her mental consciousness, she floated towards the doorway only to stop and stare at the floor. "You know, all these years I've bitched about being dead and not being able to do normal things, yet I never noticed that I _float_ because I don't have legs," she mumbled to herself. She then repeatedly hit herself on the head, crinkling her hat. "Damn it brain!," she scolded her spectral grey-matter, "why can't you ever notice the obvious things?"

After she was done abusing her head, she did her morning routine (AN: Do I really need to go into detail here?), ensured that her room was in pristine condition, then exited it. She noticed that no noises were coming from downstairs or any of the others' rooms, indicating that she was the first one up, as usual. She silently floated downstairs and was mildly surprised to see Jack and Mira passed out on the couch, with Mira's head on Jack's shoulder.

She mentally giggled at them before making her way over to the kitchen. _'Maybe I should practice my powers...'_ she thought. Ever since she decided to ignore her life-state, her usage of her Mismagius powers has been effectively nil. But when Mira verbally knocked that mindset out of her yesterday aboard the Phantom, she couldn't help but think that she was only damaging herself. Making a decision, she quickly grabbed a taco from the fridge and dashed out the back door and into the forest. After a few minutes of moving at top speed, she came upon a small clearing that housed a few tree stumps and painted target dummies. What surprised her, however, was the presence of a certain weavile.

"Tyraan?" Jenice asked in a confused tone, "What're you doing out here?"

"Training," he replied before charging an ice punch and hurling himself towards a dummy, "I had difficulties sleeping last night, so I came here to...de-stress as you would say."

Jenice blinked several times. "So you were out here all night? Didn't you get tired at _some_ point?"

"No, quite the opposite in fact," Tyraan said as he finally turned to face her, "I found the exercise to be rather refreshing. I hardly feel tired at all."

Jenice fidgeted with the end of her cloak before speaking up again. "Well, since you're not going to fall over and pass out, can...can I ask a favor?"

Tyraan cocked his head to the side in confusion. "You wish to ask me of something?"

"Yeah," she said with a sad tone, "I haven't used my powers in almost a decade, and now I can't remember anything about how to use them, so do you think you can, you know, teach me? I know you don't like me and stuff, but can you at least help me out this one time?"

Tyraan silently pondered her request. While he was never really fond of the ghost due to her various quirks, he never got much of a chance to actually speak with her in the five months he's been in the group. Eventually he decided that helping her train would both teach her responsibility as well as getting to know her better. "Very well, but while my Dark typing bears similarities to your Ghost type, you will have to seek another ghost to receive full instruction."

Jenice grinned at him in thanks. "I'd ask Mira to help, but she's asleep."

Tyraan slowly shook his head as he spoke, "I doubt that she'd be of much help anyway in all honesty. She once said that her half-breed nature prevents her from reaching the full potential of her abilities herself, and what she can do requires large amounts of concentration." He then swept his hand over to the training area. "Anyway, shall we begin?"

Jenice looked at him with a determined stare and nodded. "Lets go."

* * *

Jack slowly awoke and began to stretch, but stopped when he felt a weight pressed against his side. He looked to his right and saw Mira sleeping against him, using his shoulder as a pillow. Almost instantly the events of last night -or rather, this morning- snapped back into his memory. He reached his arm around his girlfriend's waist and gave her a light squeeze, gentle yet sufficient enough to wake her up.

Mira sleepily groaned and sat up. "What time is it?" she asked.

Jack looked over to the clock mounted on the wall. "Seven-Forty" he replied.

"Mmph, too early," she complained as she got up off the couch.

Jack got up as well and stretched his sleeping muscles. "Well it's a good thing 'cause we got a long day ahead of us."

Mira looked at him with confusion, "Why?"

"Need to go to the city and get supplies and whatnot for Melissa's birthday, since Arc burnt down the shed with all the old stuff in it," Jack responded.

Mira's deep-purple eyes seemed to glow for a second as she remembered that Melissa's birthday was in three days. "Should I go wake the others up so we can get going?" she offered.

"Sure," Jack accepted, "I'll go see if Jenice is out in the forest again, she's always up by now."

"But if he's inside the simulation, why don't the robots just, well, delete him?" said a certain Mismagius from just outside the back door.

"Or, maybe I won't."

"Because that would cause many distortions within the simulation, which in turn would cause the humans to realize that their world is not real," Tyraan said as he opened the door for Jenice. "Once they realize that, then they would start to rebel."

"What in the world are you two talking about?" Jack questioned with a raised eyebrow. "And what were you doing out?"

"I woke up early and decided to use my powers for the first time in a decade so I went out to the training yard and saw Tyraan already there. I asked him to help me, he agreed, and we spent half an hour watching me utterly fail," Jenice explained, emphasizing the final part.

"For someone that remembers none of your prior instruction, you did remarkably well," Tyraan interrupted. "Still, you have much more to learn before you are combat ready."

Jenice stuck her tongue out at him before continuing, "After that, we started walking back and somehow ended up talking about sci-fi movies the whole way."

"Ah," Jack said simply, "well, we're going to the city today, so get whatever you need and meet up at the van."

"Okay," Jenice eagerly replied. She then looked up at the ceiling, "I wonder..." She suddenly zipped upward, crashing into the ceiling and shaking the whole house.

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment before turning back to Jenice, who was now laying on the floor in a daze. "What the hell did you just do?" Mira asked once she snapped out of her confusion.

"I tried to go through the ceiling. It didn't work out like I hoped," Jenice answered, still lying on her back in a daze.

Tyraan felt the palm of his hand hit his face.

* * *

"Alright, everyone ready?" Mira asked the group in front of her. Everyone was instantly woken up by Jenice's 'experiment', so it only took a few minutes to get ready for the day's errands and meet up at the 'Super Spec-Ops Party Van' as Jenice called it. Melissa waved her wallet over her head with a smile, Tyraan leaned against the garage wall with a blank look on his face, Jenice pulled a small roll of cash from her cloak, and Arc gently swayed back and forth desperately trying to stay awake. Meanwhile, Jack was attempting to get a troublesome weedle out of the trunk of the van.

"Come on out you lil' shit," he hissed at the stubborn bug. He felt around in the dark trunk, stopping when he felt something sharp and pointy stab into his hand. "Gotcha." He quickly gripped the object and pulled it out into the light, revealing an extremely pissed-off weedle. It squeaked in fright as it was football-tossed out of the garage and eventually hit the ground with a dull thud.

"Poor little caterpillar," Melissa sighed.

"Somebody's gonna get stabbed by an angry beedrill in a month," Jenice whispered to a half-conscious Arc.

"Somebody's gonna get mauled by a midget arcanine for setting off a bomb underneath my room," he snarled back at her.

"Oh yeah, sorry about that," she said back, clearly not sorry. "My head got in my way of defying physics."

"Your...what?" Arc looked at her with no small amount of confusion. He shook his head and looked back at the blue and black van. "Too fuckin' early for this shit."

"Wait," Tyraan suddenly spoke up and pointed at Mira, "Half-breeds are illegal within Johto and are either deported or executed on sight, how will you be able to conduct business in the city?"

Mira smirked at the Weavile and concentrated her internal energy. After a moment her shadow seemed to melt around her, slowly enveloping her entirely. The darkness shifted slightly and revealed a tall, attractive blond woman wearing a white business suit with a blue vest and jeans. Tyraan's eyes nearly jumped out of his head while everyone else looked as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world to them.

"When have you been able to do that?" he asked through his shock.

"The ghost of a zoroark taught me when I went to Unova once," Mira explained while crossing her arms over her chest. "It works by taking my shadow and wrapping myself in it, shifting it to refract light to change my appearance. It doesn't work in the dark and things like infrared punch straight through it, but it works well enough."

Jack chuckled lightly at Tyraan's reaction. "Alright, let's get going."

* * *

A man in dark-red armor sat in one of the upper branches of a large tree overlooking the house, a Mk. IV Barrett .50 cal Gauss Rifle in his lap, which looked it's bullet-based iteration except the barrel was lined with blue circles. "Visual confirmation on the Resistance base and its inhabitants, proceeding with overwatch." he quietly spoke into the microphone imbedded into his helmet. The helmet matched the color of his armor and hid most of his face save for his mouth and chin. Around the eyes was a blood-red visor that provided real-time tactical info on whatever he looked at, which fit his sniper role perfectly.

"Copy that R," another man's voice spoke through the helmet's speaker, "but remember, look, not shoot."

"Yes B, I remember the briefing," R said through clenched teeth. Something caught his eye and he quickly zoomed in with his visor, not wanting to piss off B by using the rifle's scope. He saw two figures walk out of the building. "B, Sighting of two figures, one a male human while the other appears to be a female anthropomorphic banette, possibly mega form," he quickly spoke.

"Those are the confirmed leaders, track their every move, don't let them out of your sight," B ordered.

R did as he was told and kept watch. He saw the two leaders open a garage door and inspect a mid-sized blue and black van. After a few minutes they were joined by a mismagius, a mawile, a weavile with a missing claw on its left hand, and a very sluggish growlithe. A few more minutes passed and the sole human hurled a small orange object a good 100 feet across the field with a victorious smirk on his face. The group piled into the van, which backed out of the garage and started moving down the long dirt driveway.

"B, they're mobilizing in a blue and black colored van, unknown model. I won't be able to keep up with them on foot," R reported.

"Affirmative R, stay there and recon the building itself, I'll have Y keep an eye on the van," B responded.

"Roger that, reconning the house will report anything of interest."

* * *

Jack pulled the van into an empty parking space in the middle of a shopping plaza in downtown Ecruteak City. Ecruteak City was the second-largest city in Johto behind Goldenrod City, and is most famous for the Burned and Tin Towers on the outskirts of the city.

"Alright, we're here, everyone out ," Jack said.

The group quickly exited the vehicle and sighed in relief. "The radio DJ _reeeeeally_ likes Metallica today doesn't he?" asked Melissa.

"My ears are bleeding from all the screaming, I have Enter Sandman stuck in my head, and I'm still tired as hell," Arc complained, "Fuck. My. Life."

"I'll get the mute button fixed. Eventually," Jack whispered that last part to himself. "Anyway, everyone do whatever it is you do, meet back up here by three." With that, he walked off to get what he needed, Mira following behind him. While Arc immediately trotted off, Jenice looked around, shrugged to herself, and started following the arcanine, leaving Melissa and Tyraan by themselves.

"H-hey Tyraan, I'm going to go check out the Towers, do you want to come with?" Melissa quietly asked.

Tyraan shrugged and nodded. "Don't see why not, I'm rather curious about them myself."

Melissa let a large grin spread across her face as she enthusiastically grabbed the weavile's wrist. "Come on, lets go!" she said as she pulled him along, earning a yelp of surprise from him.

* * *

"So are you planning to do something or are we just going to roam around for six hours?" asked Jenice as she looked at all the various buildings her and Arc passed by.

"Eh, I got nothin' to do, might as well explore a little," answered Arc.

Jenice looked at him with suspicion. "You're not even going to get something for Melissa?"

"Nah, don't need to," Arc responded with a smirk.

A purple streak suddenly moved in front of him, stopping him in his tracks. "You're not?" Jenice angrily spat at Arc. "You're pretty much the closest thing she has to a brother and you're just going to ignore her birthday? That's just an asshole thing to do Arc."

To her surprise, Arc laughed and shook his head. "'lax Jen, I didn't say I didn't get her anything, just that I didn't need to."

Jenice eyed him curiously as it slowly clicked in her mind. "You already got her something?" she asked. When Arc simply smiled, she found herself smiling as well. "Wow, how did you do it?"

"I have ways," Arc snickered. As the duo resumed walking, Arc turned back towards Jenice with a mildly hurt look on his face. "Jen, did you really think I would blow off her birthday? Especially her fifth?"

Normally Jenice would have responded with a smart-ass remark, but she decided against it. "No, not really, it's just that she's my best friend and I don't want to see her hurt in any way," Jenice explained, "so when you said you didn't need to get her anything, I sorta snapped into by 'overprotective friend' mode before I even thought about it."

Arc nodded in understanding before asking his own question. "If she's your best friend, why didn't you tag along with her?"

"To give her some time with Tyraan," Jenice replied with a mischievous grin.

Arc rolled his eyes with a sigh and continued walking. "So you didn't come with me to keep me company?" he joked.

"Nope," Jenice replied, perhaps a little too quickly. The two kept walking, aimlessly wandering when another question popped into her head. "What's so special about fifth birthdays anyway?" she asked the arcanine beside her.

"It's like turning 21 for humans," Arc explained, "It's when you're considered a full adult by others, can do shit you couldn't before, stuff like that."

"That makes sense," Jenice said, although she was a little irritated by the obviousness of it. "How old are YOU by the way?"

Arc looked at her and cocked his head to the side, "Uh...7, why?"

"Just wondering," Jenice said with a shrug. The duo fell silent again, finding nothing else to talk about. The silence was broken when Jenice pointed out an electronics store and asked if Arc wanted to go inside. Thinking 'why the hell not?', he agreed, and they went to gawk at the wonders of technology.

* * *

Jack exited the Walmart with several bags of various birthday supplies, balloons, cake, and whatnot in his hands. A disguised Mira was beside him, carrying fewer but no less filled bags. Jack motioned for her to give him the bags she had.

"How the hell are you able to carry so much at once?" she asked him as she handed over the bags.

"Alien voodoo science magic," Jack joked in reply. "I'm going to run these down to the van real quick and meet back up with you."

"Alright, I'll be wondering around near here, " Mira informed him. When he left, she started walking down the sidewalk of the shopping plaza, glancing at all the stores. Several caught her eye and she made a mental note to visit them at some point in the future. Eventually her train of thought wondered over to how she was going to spend the week-long break the group was having on account of Melissa's birthday. That train was horribly de-railed with no survivors when she heard a muffled yell come from a nearby alley.

"Shit," Mira hissed under her breath as she ran into the dark alleyway. Taking the first left she came across, she was confronted with the sight of three large, muscular men continuously punching and kicking a prone girl who looked to be no older then 16.

"Teach ya t' exist ya lil' freak," a thickly accented thug spat at the girl. He delivered a devastating kick to her stomach, causing her to gasp and cough up a bit of blood.

"Leave her the hell alone," Mira threatened, finally revealing herself. The three thugs turned to face her, a smile appearing on the face of one. The smiling one wore a three-piece suit that practically screamed 'suave gambler' while the other two wore ragged street clothes.

"Aw come on baby, we're just teaching this little freak here the errors of her existence," the well-dressed thug replied, his voice smooth and calm despite the brutality he had just a few seconds ago. "Wa's a hot blonde like you doin' out here anyway?" he asked, oblivious to Mira's true form.

"I protect people like her from assholes like you," Mira darkly answered, well aware of the fact that her disguise was starting to waver.

"They ain't 'people' toots, they're animals. Freaks of nature that deserve to be put down." He said, his calm voice maddening. "Although, at least Gijinkas like her are a _little_ more human then the others," he said while casting a glance over at the girl on the ground while flicking out a knife, "Maybe if I cut out those ears and nails of hers..."

Mira finally noticed the physical appearance of the girl. She had long, pointed ears, one of which red at the tip as well as dangerous-looking nails, almost like claws. That combined with her pinkish-red hair and eyes identified her as a zangoose half-breed.

"Touch her and you'll be wearing your ass for a hat," Mira hissed.

The man in the suit chuckled darkly. "You're a determined one ain't ya?" he asked with a murderous glint in his eyes, "Well, I for one, am not opposed to killing those that annoy me."

"I'd like to see you try," Mira whispered as she dispelled her disguise, showing her opponents her true form.

"Oh shit, this bitch is a Morph. And a fucking banette-like-thing at that," yelled the thug who had been silent so far.

The lead thug smiled, his white teeth shining in the relative darkness. "All the more enjoyable." he said as he signaled his lackeys to attack.

* * *

Melissa and Tyraan were standing outside the Burned Tower, waiting to be let in the monument.

"I wonder if they'll let us inside the lower level," Melissa excitedly said, "Maybe they'll have replicas of the Legendaries that lived there.

Tyraan couldn't help but chuckle at her childlike excitement. "I am fairly certain that they will allow us to visit the lower level. It would be foolish not to."

Melissa's excitement was nearly bursting at the seams by now. They had been aimlessly wandering around until 1pm when the Towers opened, and all the waiting was showing her mood. Just as she was about to say something, the doors to the Tower buzzed, signifying that they were unlocked now.

"C'mon! We're the first ones here, lets go before it gets too crowded!" Melissa nearly shouted as she pulled on Tyraan's arm. He simply gave a humored sigh and allowed himself to be dragged by the hyper Mawile.

Once inside, they looked around the building, which was pretty much just one big room filled with plaques and exhibits detailing the history of the Towers and the city surrounding them. Nowadays the Burned tower was burned in name only, as all of the debris had long been cleared out and the second floor and basement were rebuilt. Other then the two of them, the building was devoid of life.

All of the exhibits looked interesting, but the thing that caught Melissa's eye was the staircase leading downstairs. "The stairs are over there, we should go there first," she said to her weavile companion.

While Tyraan was more than willing to comply with her wishes, he had something he needed to do first, something he needed to do alone. He didn't want to upset the her, but this was the most opportune moment for him. "I am sorry Melissa," he apologized, "but there is something I must take care of before we do so." Melissa practically seemed to shrink in disappointment, which caused Tyraan to quickly place a hand on her shoulder and gently caress her cheek with his claw, causing her to blush lightly. "It will only take a few minutes, you can look at some of the other exhibits during that time."

Melissa slowly reached up and touched his hand that was on her shoulder. She looked up at him and smiled. "Okay, you can do whatever it is, I'll just be here," she said quietly.

Tyraan gave a soft smile before removing his hand and walking out the door. Quickly getting his bearings, he sprinted on all fours towards his destination. It took a minute of running at top speed to reach it, but he was soon greeted with the sight of the store he needed.

Walking into the mid-sized jewelry shop, he noticed that it was rather busy today. He slowly walked up to the counter and tapped on it, alerting the magazine-reading employee to his presence. "Excuse me ma'am, but I would like to purchase-"

"I'm sorry, hold that thought," the woman interrupted. She quickly fumbled through a drawer in the counter before pulling out a small device and fitting it around her ear. "My apologies sir, I didn't realize that I didn't have my translator on," she apologized, though boredom still seeped through her voice, "Now, what were you saying?"

"I would like to purchase a piece of gold ore as well as an un-cut garnet, if at all possible," Tyraan repeated.

"You...want just the ore and gem?" the woman questioned. When Tyraan nodded, she simply shrugged and pulled the requested items out of another drawer and placed them on the counter. "That'll be 150 poké sir."

Tyraan pulled a small wad of cash from his headdress, counted out the required funds, and handed them over to the woman. "If the items could be delivered to a blue and black van in aisle 16 of the main parking area, it would be much appreciated," he asked of the employee.

"Very well sir, thank you and have a nice day," the woman said with a fake smile.

Tyraan nodded in return out of politeness before exiting the store and sprinting back over to the Burned Tower. Entering it, he noticed that it had barely filled while he was gone, and it took only a few seconds to find Melissa reading a small plaque. He walked up to her and tapped her shoulder, causing her to jump and spin around. Her face of fear and shock almost instantly melted into a warm smile.

"You're back already?" she asked, although his return wasn't a bad thing.

"I had said it would only take a few minutes," he said matter-of-factly. "Now we can go to the basement exhibit if you wish."

The excited sparkle in the Mawile's eyes came back in full force as she nodded vigorously. The two of them climbed down the stairs into the basement, which was just as large as the ground floor and had a large stone stage in the back. Lining the walls were pictures and murals depicting the Legendary Canines, who had lived in the Burned Tower prior to relocating to the Hall of Legends along with all the other Legendaries. The two companions were the only ones in the room, save for the brown-suited employee standing next to the closed curtain on the stage. Said employee noticed the duo and beckoned them over with a wave.

"So you two are the first ones here eh?" the man asked as they stepped onto the stage and up to the curtain. "Well count yourselves lucky, 'cause we got a special guest here today."

If Melissa's eye lit up any more, they'd be glowing. "Who is it?" she rapidly asked.

Both Tyraan and the man chuckled at her curious excitement. "Well, it's actually-"

"I am perfectly capable of introducing myself Henry," a soothing feminine voice said from behind the curtain. The curtain parted slightly and a large blue dog with purple 'hair' and a large gem-like object on its forehead stepped forward. Melissa gasped in shock while Tyraan fought the urge to drop to one knee.

"S-S-Suicune?" Melissa stammered.

Suicune gave a warm smile and patted Melissa on the head using one of the ribbon-like tendrils extending from her back. "I haven't seen you two before, what are your names?" Suicune asked.

"M-m-my name i-is M-Melissa," the Mawile responded, stumbling over her words.

"And mine is Tyraan," the Weavile added, only slightly more composed.

Suicune chuckled at the two's shocked expressions as she sat down. "Tell me about yourselves," she urged, "we have at least an hour until tourists start showing up, I'd like to spend it talking with you."

Melissa was still too stunned to form coherent sentences, so Tyraan spoke up first. "Well, we, along with several others, are under the very loosely defined ownership of a man named Jack," he started. "I am the newest member of the group, having been with them for a mere five-and-a-half months. Melissa on the other hand has been with Jack for almost the entirety of her five years of life, and was the first member of the group."

Suicune nodded before turning her gaze to Tyraan's missing claw, then back to him. "I assume you have led a hard life prior to joining Jack?" she queried.

Tyraan sighed and ran a claw over the stub of his finger. "Yes," he said sadly, "If there was a way I could go back and change the errors of my past, then I would do so without a second thought."

Suicune nodded again in understanding, as she also failed many times in the millennia she's been alive. "I understand your pain Tyraan, I too sometimes wish I could correct the past. But wishing is just that, a wish. In order for a truly brighter future, one must look beyond the past, and strive to better the present," she lectured. She then turned to Melissa, "And what of you Melissa? You've been quiet so far."

"There's not really much to say about me," Melissa admitted, "I have an adoptive human father, I sometimes play games with my friend Jenice, and it's my fifth birthday in three days, that's pretty much it."

"Oh, well, happy birthday then," Suicune congratulated, "and the human you speak of, I assume he is the prior-mentioned Jack?"

"Yeah," Melissa confirmed, "he...rescued me when I was really little. He raised me like I was his own daughter. He's always nice to everyone, all my friends are because of him, I really couldn't ask for anything else."

Suicune smiled at Melissa's statement. "He sounds like a good man; I wish more beings, human and pokémon, were as kind-hearted as him." She turned her head upward at the sound of doors rapidly opening and closing and let out a disappointed sigh. "Well, it seems out time is running short, I must prepare for a long day today," she said as she stood up, "It's far too infrequent that I get to just sit and talk with the ordinary man." She once again smiled at the duo, "Regardless, I enjoyed talking with you two."

Suicune moved back towards the curtain, but stopped just as she reached it and turned to look straight at Tyraan. "And remember Tyraan," she started, "you might have lost what was dearest to you once before, but you WILL find it again. You simply have to look for it." With that, she disappeared behind the curtain, leaving a confused Melissa and a shocked Tyraan alone in the room.

"Come on Melissa," Tyraan said as he placed a hand on her shoulder, "we should leave Suicune alone and view the rest of the Tower."

Melissa nodded and followed him upstairs, which had filled considerably in the time they were in the basement.

* * *

The thug with the accent immediately charged at Mira, using his large size to try to knock her down. Just as he came within a foot, she dodged to the left and held out her leg, tripping the thug and sending him sprawling across the concrete ground. He picking himself back up, only to receive a knee the the side of his head that rendered him unconscious with a sickening crack. Captain Obvious, the one that oh-so-helpfully pointed out Mira's species, charged her with a fist aimed at her head. Mira quickly spun around and caught his arm and twisted it, causing him to cry out in pain. Mira's own fist smashed into the side of his jaw, silencing him as several teeth and a small spray of blood erupted from his mouth.

"You're good for a freak, I'll give you that," the man in the suit complimented as Mira threw the unconscious thug to the ground. "Then again, those two can't fight worth shit anyway."

Mr. Suit suddenly dived toward Mira with his knife and rapidly slashed at her. She was barely able to dodge his swift attacks and struck at him at the first opening. Her fist connected with his stomach and quickly followed up with a snap-kick to his face. The man grunted in pain, but quickly composed himself and slashed at her again. This time Mira wasn't fast enough, a large cut appearing on her cheek that slowly dripped deep-purple blood. She ignored the pain and threw another punch at the man, but he side-stepped it and slashed at her again. This lethal dance continued for some time, neither of them making significant hits on the other, until they were both panting from exhaustion.

"You're damn good," the man spat at Mira, "almost too good."

She responded with a fist to the face, catching him off-guard. As he stumbled backwards, more out of surprise then pain, She brought her knee up to his chest and broke at least one rib. He swung his own leg at her only to be caught and twisted around painfully. Mira slammed down on his shin with her elbow with enough force for the bone to snap and tear through his skin. He howled in pain as he collapsed to the ground, clutching the shard of bone that was protruding from his leg.

Mira grabbed him by the collar of his suit and hovered her face mere inches away from his. "If I EVER see you again," she coldly threatened, "there won't be enough of you left to bury."

The thug's response was to headbutt her, but he recoiled in pain as her zipper-mouth cut his forehead. Mira promptly smashed her fist into the side of his head, the force of the punch combined with the resistance of the ground knocking him unconscious with a sickening crunch. She got up and wiped the flecks of blood off her hand as she walked over to the Zangoose-Breed. Mira offered her hand to the girl, who took it after a moment of hesitation.

"You're safe now," Mira reassured the girl, "they won't bother you any more."

"T-thank you, for saving me," the girl coughed. She was still trembling and holding her stomach, but at least she was standing. "They said that they were either going to just beat me to death or ...'have fun' with me then sell me to the cops."

Mira shook her head in disgust. "I hate this, people trying to kill others just because of who their parents are." She looked back at the girl with apologetic eyes, "Sorry, I just get worked up over this, for obvious reasons." She looked over the clothes the girl was wearing, a simple grey sweatshirt and hoodie with a pair of blue jeans, neither of which concealed her half-breed features very well. "Sorry to say, but you're going to need a better disguise then that."

The girl gave a pained laugh and leaned against the wall. "This was only for a little bit," she said with an heavy smile, "I was actually on my way home to collect my stuff so I can move to Sinnoh."

"Half-Breed City?" Mira asked. The girl nodded in reply. "Well, I hope that no-one else bothers you on you're way there."

"I hope so too," the zangoose-breed sighed as she got off the wall. "I should probably go, thank you again."

"Not a problem," Mira said with a small wave as the girl walked off. She felt a stinging on her face and instinctivly reached for the gash on her cheek. "There's no sewing that one up," she sighed as she eyed the blood on her fingertips. She noticed several other injuries across her body, most on her outer skin, and all were bleeding slightly. She glared over to where her opponents had fallen, but something was off about the scene.

The man in the suit was gone.

* * *

"So what'd you get?" a certain under-sized arcanine asked as he and his companion exited the electronics store.

"Something for Melissa," Jenice responded, stuffing the bag she was carrying into her cloak.

"Alright, but what _is_ it," Arc repeated.

"Not telling~~" she trilled.

Arc sighed and shook his head, "Ya know Jen, it's not like it's MY present, you never get me anything anyway, so why can't you just tell me?"

"I want it to be a secret," she said as she lightly knocked Arc on the top of his head, "And I DO get you stuff sometimes."

"A ball of silly-putty doesn't count," he sighed.

"Still technically something," she retorted.

Arc rolled his eyes and looked at a clock mounted on the wall of a building. "Holy shit," he exclaimed, "did we really spend four hours in there?"

"Eh, they were showing entire movies for free," Jenice shrugged, "I guess we just lost track."

"I guess," Arc echoed, "still, four hours is a long time to just sit there and watch crappy movies that are older then dirt."

"Hey, Kick-Ass is a great movie, just 'cause it's old doesn't mean it's bad," Jenice defended.

"Jen, it's almost 30 years old and it _shows_ ," Arc rebutted. (AN: Don't forget, this story takes place in 2037)

"Remind me to tell you that you said that next time you watch Pulp Fiction."

"Jen," Arc started, "Tarantino's shit NEVER goes old. Ever."

"Uh-huh, sure," she replied to his hypocrisy. She suddenly remembered something she had to do the next time she was in the city. "Hey Arc, I need to go do something real quick."

"Alright, I'll be..." he turned around and noticed that she was already gone, "Figures."

He sighed and wandered around for a few minutes, eventually ending up at the Ecruteak Train Station. The station and rail lines were built around 18 years ago, and connected all the major cities of Johto together, and even had a line crossing the Honshu lake into Kanto, offering an alternative to the S.S. Aqua II. The station allowed non-trainers and those without flying pokémon to rapidly traverse the region. Arc was about to turn back the way he came when something -or rather someone- caught his eye.

It was a shiny lopunny holding a black purse and had a leg brace wrapped around its right shin and knee. Beyond the coloring and brace, it looked like any other lopunny, yet to Arc it -or she- was unmistakably familiar.

"Daisy?" he called out to the Lopunny as she stepped onto the train.

The Lopunny snapped her head around and her eyes immediately fell on the arcanine."Arc?" she called back just as the doors closed and the train sped off.

Arc stared at the train in astonishment as it slowly left the city. "Need to talk to Jack," he whispered as he turned and ran towards the shopping plaza. He he dodged around several pedestrians before turning a corner and running straight into a purple ghost.

"What the hell?" Jenice yelled as she picked herself off the ground, "What was that for Arc?"

"Sorry Jen, really am," Arc panted, "but I need to talk to Jack about something."

Jenice was about to let loose a long string of insults, but when she saw his slightly panicked expression, her anger instantly vanished. "What's wrong, something happen?" she worriedly asked.

Arc took a deep breath before explaining. "Okay, you know how I used to live in Goldenrod four years ago right? And how I ran away when...something bad happened?"

"Yeah," Jenice remembered, "me and my boyfriend actually helped you get out. You never told us what you were running from though," she mumbled the second sentence to herself.

"Well, at the train station I saw someone from Golden, someone I knew. And I need Jack to get me there as soon as he possibly can."

"But I thought you said you never wanted to go back, who could suddenly change your mind?" Jenice questioned.

Arc seemed to choke on his next word. "Family," he said simply.

Jenice recoiled an inch in shock. "I thought you said that you didn't have family."

"Not entirely," he winced. "I'm going to the van, you coming?" he said as he started to run again.

"Right behind you," she yelled as she floated after him.

* * *

"Three guys huh? All picking an a zangoose Gijinka?" Jack asked the now-disguised Mira. They were both at the van, with Jack holding an small package with the 'Precious Things' logo stamped on it.

"Yeah," she confirmed, "they looked like they were about to either kill her, rape her, or both. So I jumped in and knocked them on their asses."

"You got hurt any?" Jack asked with worry.

"A few scratches around from the guy with the knife, plus a nasty one on my cheek."

"Damn," Jack said as he shook his head, "well, could've gone a lot worse though." He leaned inside the van and rummaged through the glove-box, pulling out a vial of green-blue liquid. "You should probably use this."

"Hate using potions," Mira complained, but took the vial anyway.

"Well, at least you _can_ use them," Jack said with a shrug, "beats waiting a month for injuries to heal like a normal person."

"True," Mira agreed as she twisted the cap off the vial, "still makes sewage smell better by comparison." She poured a small amount of the potion onto her fingertips and spread it across the gash on her cheek, causing a stinging pain and a very foul odor. Almost instantly the wound began to stitch itself closed, purple internal flesh and caked-on blood being replaced by jet-black skin. "Alright, it's healed."

"What about all the other ones?" Jack queried.

Mira dismissed his concerns with a wave of her hand. "They'll be gone by morning. I might not regenerate as fast as you, but I still do."

"If you say so," Jack replied with an eye-roll. "What happened to the girl you rescued anyway?"

"She got up, shook herself off, and walked away after saying thanks," Mira recalled, "she said that she was on her way home to pack up for moving to Sinnoh." Mira sighed and shook her head, her amethyst eyes filling with sadness. "I feel sorry for the poor girl. Having to stay hidden from society for 16 years, only to have to leave almost everything behind just to move to a place that won't kill her."

A faint frown worked its way onto Jack's face. "I don't really like this whole 'deport-slash-murder half-breeds on sight' thing the government has going on."

"Those Wings of Purity assholes running around don't make it any better," Mira snarled, "I'd just _love_ to walk into one of their hideouts and beat the ever-living fuck out of them."

"I would too Mira," Jack agreed, "but we can't fight two wars at once. I'm surprised that we've remained incognito, not to mention alive, for as long as we have. TWO multinational armies gunning after us would change that."

"I know," Mira painfully sighed as she leaned against the van, "it just makes me frustrated to know that these people, people like ME, are suffering and I can't do a damn thing about it."

"Maybe you don't have to do anything," Jack offered, "I mean, Unova recently repealed its anti-poképhilia laws, making half-breeds legal by extension. With all the protests lately demanding the same, other regions might follow."

"Maybe, maybe," Mira said hopefully, "doesn't stop the Wings though."

"Yo, Jack!," yelled an orange-and-black dog as he rounded the corner.

"Arc? What are you running from?" Jack asked.

Arc came to a skidding halt in front of Jack while Jenice gently floated up. "Listen, I know this is gonna sound weird," he said in between gasps of breath, "but we need to go to Goldenrod and track down a shiny lopunny with a leg brace."

"What?" Mira asked.

"What?" Jack echoed.

"Just trust me on this one," Arc pleaded, "it's not anything bad or dangerous, but it is really effing important."

"Uh, o...kay?" Jack uncertainly agreed. "We won't be able to go until next week though, since Melissa's holding me hostage."

"Daaad," whined a certain mawile as she walked up to the van, "I'm not holding you _hostage_."

"Just a joke Melissa," Jack chuckled. He flinched when he suddenly felt the package he was holding disappear. He subtly looked around to see if he dropped it, but stopped when he saw Tyraan appear out of thin air. _'Faint Attack?'_ Jack asked with his eyes.

 _'Yes,'_ Tyraan looked back, _'Thank you for holding it by the way.'_

"So Melissa, what did you do all day?" Jenice asked, oblivious to the short exchange.

Melissa's eyes resumed their sparkle from earlier in the day. "Oh I went with Tyraan to look at the Towers, it was really fun but the best part," she took a dramatic pause, "I. Met. Suicune!"

Everyone except Tyraan snapped their heads over to Melissa in shock. "No fuckin' way!" Arc yelled in disbelief.

"I'd _kill_ to meet a Legendary," Jenice whispered.

"She's been giddy about that fact all day," Tyraan explained with a humored tone.

"Come on Tyraan, a _Legendary_ ," Melissa countered, "how often does that happen?"

"Not very," Mira answered for him, "Ever since Lugia kidnapped that cruise ship, simply _seeing_ a Legendary is rare."

"What was Suicune like?" Jenice interjected.

"Oh, she was very nice, she just sat with us and talked," Melissa answered, "apparently she misses being able to talk with people."

"That sounds odd, a literal god wanting to walk and talk amongst us mere mortals," Jenice mused, "They have everything they could possibly want, yet they simply want to walk the same earth that they command." Everyone looked at her with bewildered expressions. "What?"

"Anyway," Jack interrupted, trying not to be distracted by the suddenly philosophical Jenice, "has everyone done what they wanted to here?" Everyone confirmed that they were done with their various errands. "Alright, pile in."

* * *

"What do you mean you couldn't get inside the base?" A woman in a white lab coat snarled at the man in front of her. The man wore a dull-red suit of armor, although most of the coloring was gone due to the numerous scratches, chips, and scorch marks across it.

"I mean that they had a very advanced security system crossing the house," the armor-clad man responded in a professional tone, masking his annoyance, "there was some sort of energy field surrounding it, and whenever I crossed its boundary, my visor would flare a bright blue and my armor practically disintegrated, not to mention the intense burning pain."

"Shouldn't your shields prevent that from happening?" the woman harshly questioned.

"It bypassed the shields," he answered, "even as I was being burned alive they remained at 100 percent."

The woman's facial expression briefly flickered from anger to curiosity before going back. "Was there any other Intel you could gather?"

"The base looks like a simple two-story rural house from the outside," he reported, "however, I was not able to locate the aircraft they utilize. Also, I believe the tracking beacon might have been destroyed, possibly by the same field that prevented me from entering the base."

The woman stroked her chin and nodded in thought. "You are dismissed R, your mission might not have been a complete failure after all." She waved him away to emphasize her statement, "Go have Jackson repair your armor, you will likely be needed shortly."

"As you wish ma'am," R said with a slight bow as he turned to leave.

* * *

 _There are two types of Half-Breeds in the world, Morphs and Gijinkas. Morphs appear to be anthropomorphic pokemon, and are born of a pokemon mother. Gijinkas on the other hand, look mostly human, and are born from a human mother. Some exceptions exist however, such as members of the Supernatural Trio (Ghost, Dark, and Psychic) having only Morph children, and Grass, Dragon, and Steel types only having Gijinka children._

 _Regardless of an individual's sub-species, they are almost universally hated, and are frequently deported or outright executed on sight due to fear, envy, and anti-pokephillia laws. This racism has manifested itself in many extremist groups such as the infamous Wings of Purity, which is notorious for the torture and rape of the victims they capture. The only places that guarantee safety are Sinnoh (which welcomes Half-Breeds with open arms), Kalos (which is simply indifferent in their policies), and recently Unova._

Half-Breeds, the Union of Man and 'Mon-written by Elizabeth Detrill

* * *

 **I decided to put little pieces of lore at the bottom of every chapter in the form of in-universe books, speeches, and whatnot. Hopefully this will make the world seem more alive beyond what happens on-screen. These blurbs have also been added to previous chapters, so check 'em out if you're interested.**

 **As always, reviews would be appreciated.**


	5. The Birthday

**Back from the dead a-holes.**

* * *

"Melissa."

"Mmph. Goway"

"Meliiissa."

"Mmrm. Lemmelone"

Melissa felt herself get nudged slightly. She curled under the blankets further and attempted to swat at whatever was poking her. "Five more hours," she groaned.

"You slept in enough, now you have to get up."

She was pushed again, slightly harder this time. She sighed and rolled on to her back, giving up on the possibility of more sleep. She sat up and opened her eyes, the image of an orange-and-white dog slowly coming into focus.

"Finally awake," he said with a smirk, "it's only noon."

"Arrrc..." Melissa whined. She rubbed her eyes and sat up further, allowing her maw to stretch. "What'd you want?" she groggily asked.

Arc smiled and pushed a small paper card toward her with his snout. "Happy birthday Mel."

Melissa returned his smile and opened the card. Within it were several very crudely drawn humanoid-shaped stick figures and one equally bad quadruped, all in crayon. Underneath them were the words 'Happy Birthday From Us.'

"I'm a real Da Vinci ain't I?" Arc remarked.

Melissa gave a happy sigh and wrapped her arms around the dog. "You will never end up in a gallery," she joked, "but thanks for the card."

"Hey, don't blame me, you know how hard it is to draw without thumbs?" he asked, shaking a paw for emphasis.

Melissa rolled her eyes and jumped off the bed, Arc following suit. She walked over to her dresser and opened the bottom drawer, which held several miscellaneous items, including a small stack of cards.

"Aren't you too old to be drawing birthday cards like a little kid?" she asked as she gently set the new card on top of the pile.

"Do _you_ ever get too old to receive them?" Arc countered with a smirk.

A small blush formed on her cheeks as she closed the drawer. "I guess not..." she hesitantly answered.

Arc quietly laughed and nudged her shoulder with his snout. "Hey, nothin' wrong with liking them. Besides, I like giving them to you. I like seeing my little sis happy."

Melissa smiled and wrapped her arms around him again, a somewhat difficult feat as he was over a foot taller than her. "Just don't ever stop," she mumbled into his fur.

"Don't worry, I've got another forty years left in me, so you'll have to put up with me for a long while still."

She sighed into his mane and held him tighter. The natural warmth of his body soothed her all over, and his soft fur made her want to drift off to sleep again. Unfortunately, she was unable to as she suddenly felt a cold, wet nose being jabbed into her side.

"Hey, come on," Arc pestered her, "time to go downstairs. Everyone has been waiting for hours."

Melissa groaned and peeled herself away from him, brushing away a few lingering strands of his fur from her face. "Hey Arc, can I ask a little favor?"

"Sure," he said with a shrug.

She felt another blush creep onto her face and she looked at the floor in embarrassment. "Can...I ride you downstairs? Like when I was little?" she quietly asked.

Arc stared at her blankly for a moment before lowering his rear. "Sure, hop on," he said unenthusiastically.

Her face instantly lit up and she quickly climbed onto his back, sitting on him like a rider would a horse. "Thank you!" she almost cheered while hugging his neck.

Arc rolled his eyes and stood up again. "And you say _I_ don't grow up."

He trotted out of the room and through the hallway, Melissa bouncing with every step he took. Ever since Arc moved in four years ago, she frequently rode him around like a horse, although it became less common as she grew older. While it never failed to give her a smile that stretched from ear to ear, Arc was...less than enthused about it, although he was willing to allow her as it made her happy.

They descended the stairs and where immediately assaulted by a blinding flash of light.

"Ah-ha!" yelled Jenice's voice, "I _knew_ it! Can't stop old habits." She floated out of her hiding spot, behind the couch, and twirled the camera around her hand. "Boys at the forum are gonna _love_ this," she said as she stuffed the device into her cloak.

"You put _anything_ of me on the internet and you DIE, got it," the dog growled at the undead witch.

Jenice felt beads of sweat appear on her forehead as she cracked an uneasy smile. "Uh, yeah, sure, got it," she said unconvincingly. She made a mental note to reset her password next time she was online.

"Ugh, big green splotch in my eye," he heard Melissa whine, "Don't you hate that?"

Arc shrugged and allowed her to dismount him. "I've been flashed so many times I don't even notice it anymore."

"What're you doing getting flashed by people all the time?" Mira joked from the other room.

"Different kind of flashed, although not wrong either." Both Jenice and Melissa looked at him quizzically. "Yeah, I don't understand it either," he said, "prolly like...two dozen times at least. And some were otherwise respectable women"

"Damn, you must have been one _helluva_ a stud in the past, or at least attract women with poor judgment," Jenice laughed, "Still, two dozen? Could've had fun for weeks.". She instantly stopped laughing when she _felt_ Arc's death glare tearing into her soul.

"What, you think that just because some chick kneels over and shakes her ass at me that I'm going to sleep with her?" he seethed, "I have standards ya know, I won't just sleep around for the hell of it."

"Well maybe you're too stuck up," Jenice shot back, "one night stands exist for a reason, and even pokémon do them you know."

"I'm...going away now," Melissa awkwardly said as she slowly shuffled to the kitchen.

The two watched the Mawile leave the room, chuckling to themselves as soon as she left.

"I can't believed that worked,"Jenice giggled.

"Of course it did, she can't handle topics like that to save her life," Arc snickered, "so, you got the gift?"

Jenice took a small rectangular box out of her cloak and waved it at him. "Right here," she said as she placed it on the coffee table, along with another, smaller box, "Gotta hand it to you Arc, I really didn't expect something this...big from you." She paused and spun to face him, "How much did it cost anyway."

Arc darted his eyes around and lowered his head, "About...uh, three hundred? Three fifty?"

Jenice's eyes widened at the cost, "Holy shit, you spent _all_ your dough on that thing? You know she'll throw a fit over spending that much on her."

"Whiiich is kinda why I don't plan on telling her. I'll just say I got it on sale or some shit."

Jenice crossed her arms and huffed in disbelief, "She won't believe you, you know how she is."

Arc sighed and jumped onto the couch, spinning around a few times before plopping down. "Just wanna make her happy, she's been so stressed lately."

He remembered how she came into his room one night, tears running down her face. He asked what was wrong, and she answered that feared for everyone's lives. As the group ramped up their actions against Team Shadow, she became increasingly worried that someone might not come back alive. Not a day went by where she didn't make herself almost sick from worry, despite constant reassurance.

"Yeah..." Jenice agreed, feeling sorry for the girl. She quickly decided to change the subject to something less depressing, "So... you don't do one night stands huh?"

Arc huffed and shifted a little, "No, call me old fashioned but I'd rather bone someone I know, rather then some random broad off the street."

"'Someone you know' huh," she snickered, "so you'd do me if you had the chance?"

"I wouldn't go THAT far."

"Awww," Jenice mock-pouted, "and here I thought I might get some action once in a while."

"Don't you have a boyfriend?"

"Non-monogamous," she said rather bluntly.

"Figures," Arc said as he rolled onto his back, "you Supernaturals always reject other norms of society, why not relationship ones as well!"

"Hey!" Jenice snapped, "you CAN be with more than one person at a time, and it's not exclusive to ghosts and whatnot, you 'Elementals' do it too."

"Alright alright, shit Jen," he backpedled, knowing not to contest her beliefs. He was silent for a few moments to allow her to cool down. "Besides Jen, how would we even do it, you don't even have a freaking body!"

Jenice deadpanned and pulled down some of her cloak, exposing her left shoulder. It was thin and purple, almost indistinguishable from the sleeve that normally covered it. She held it there for a moment before pulling it back up, a small smirk on her face.

"Ya learn something new every day."

xxxxxx

The group was seated at the table, all watching Melissa as she bounced in her seat with mirth. She watched as Mira placed a cake on the table and Arc lit the candles with a small ember. She smiled at them and blew the candles out, although taking a few tries to do so. When she finished, Jack cut up the cake and divided it among the group, with Melissa having a slightly larger piece, while Mira went to get the presents from the living room. Melissa squealed and immediately dug into her slice, practically inhaling it and causing Tyraan's eyes to widen in shock.

"Do...you even need to breathe?" he asked, slightly mortified.

Melissa turned her head to face him, causing a few crumbs to fall from her engorged mouth. "Nuu." She swallowed and gasped for breath before finishing speaking, "Are you gonna finish that?" she asked the Weavile.

He cautiously pushed his slice towards her while mumbling about how he didn't like sweets. He didn't even finish moving it before she started devouring it.

"Damn Mel," Jenice gaped, "not even an Emboar eats like that."

Melissa's response was to simply glare at her and resume eating. Everyone turned to Jack to intervene, but he just threw is hands into the air in defeat.

"I gave up after year two."

Mira walked back in, this time carrying a small stack of presents. "Well, I _was_ going to wait till she was done, but I guess there's no point if her face is a black hole."

"Couuf ond," Melissa protested unintelligibly.

"Seriously Mel, you're even worse than LAST year," Arc added.

Melissa swallowed what she had and slumped back into her chair, although she perked back up when she saw the gifts placed on the table. She grabbed one of the mid-sized ones, Jack's, and tore it open, revealing a fist-sized blue cube that flashed as soon as she touched it. It flashed a few times before emitting a hologram, making her eyes go wide.

"Oh, this is one of those new Omnidex things they're developing isn't it?" she asked her father.

Jack nodded and smiled, "Yep, Albert Silph gave it to me when we saved his ass from that Shadow raid." He started chuckling to himself and shook his head, "The hell was I gonna do with a _masterball_."

Melissa touched the Phone icon on the hologram and found the resulting list was entirely empty. She backed out of the menu and opened the inventory, finding it also empty save for a few basic medical supplies.

"The phone works through a psychic connection, so you can call us whenever and wherever," Jack explained, "and the inventory stores things without them taking up space, if it fits in a large backpack, it'll fit in that." When he saw her confused expression he urged her to touch the Potion icon.

She did so and was startled when a potion materialized at the top of the cube. She hesitantly took it and was surprised to find it completely solid and not holographic. She shook it and the red liquid sloshed around inside. She placed it back on top of the Omnidex and watched as it dissolved back into the cube, the inventory list acknowledging the replaced potion. She let out a stunned noise while everyone else's jaws dropped.

"It can even turn various berries and herbs into sprayables and pills, respectively," Jack continued, "and it never runs out of space either, so feel free to store as much stuff as you want. Perfect for exploring the forest."

"Thanks dad!" Melissa beamed. She jumped off her chair and ran over to hug him.

"Technology scares me sometimes," Jenice loudly whispered, not taking her eyes off the 'dex.

"You DO realize that the Phantom is armed with energy weaponry, correct?" Tyraan deadpanned, "As I recall, laser weaponry is far more advanced than the currant ballistic standard, and my gauss rifle is even more so."

Jenice stuck her tongue out at him and handed Melissa her gift. She sat back on her chair and tore open the gift, a copy of Rock Band 7.

"And we can even use the old stuff with it!" Jenice exclaimed.

Melissa said her thanks and grabbed Mira's gift. It was a box of assorted exploration gear, including an ear-mounted camera, a micro-flashlight, a drone linked to a wrist-mounted computer, and, bizarrely, a pair of night-vision goggles.

"Uhhh, night-vision goggles?" Melissa asked.

Mira peered at the goggles. "I uh...I don't think those are supposed to be there." She legitimately had no idea where they came from.

"Well, uh, thanks," Melissa said, still thoroughly confused. She opened Arc's gift next, it being a box containing a handheld tablet. Jack and Mira let out impressed whistles while she looked over the box, examining the specs. She stopped when she noticed that the bottom right corner was heavily damaged. "You scratched the price tag off."

Arc gave a sheepish grin while the words _'damn it'_ continuously echoed in his mind. "Uh...no price is too high for happiness?"

Melissa rolled her eyes and hugged the canine, just appreciating the gift. She reached for the final present, Tyraan's, and opened it. Inside was a sparkling gold bracelet with a small garnet adorning the center.

"How," she gasped. She was mesmerized by how the light glistened off the gem.

"I...made it," Tyraan said, pausing slightly out of embarrassment.

"How," she repeated, now facing him.

"I purchased the ore and gem at a jewelers and, well, made it" he said with a shrug, "Jewelcrafting has always been an interest of mine, and I figured I should practice that interest while also giving you something you would enjoy. There's a human saying for it I cant remember."

"It's beautiful," she whispered.

Tyraan smiled but lowered his head, dragging his claws across each other. "That bracelet is...only a small fraction of the original material," he admitted, "I damaged several of my first attempts beyond the point of finding any beauty in them."

He stopped talking when he suddenly felt her arms around him and her head on his chest. "It's still beautiful," she muttered into his fur.

Jenice shifted around awkwardly in her seat. "I'm...gonna go boot up the game," she said quickly, grabbing the game and bolting to the living room even quicker. The rest of the group soon followed, leaving the Mawile and Weavile alone in the kitchen.

Tyraan gently stroked her maw as she hugged his chest. He felt an internal tingle in his chest with every breath she took. It wasn't a secret that the two cared deeply for each other, but Tyraan felt himself wishing that she wasn't so open about her affections. His natural introverted personality contrasted with her expressive one. So, naturally, her burying her face into his chest in front of everyone he knew was going to leave him embarrassed for some time.

Especially since Jenice is a massive dickwad that never lives anything down.

"Melissa, we should go now," he gently nudged her, "the others are likely waiting for us by now."

Melissa sighed and reluctantly peeled herself away from him. "Alright," she whined, yet still had a soft smile, "shouldn't let them wait too long, huh?"

Tyraan chuckled and shook his head. "No, we shouldn't," he said as he jumped off his chair, "they'll likely be cross with us if we did."

Melissa smiled and walked into the living room, Tyraan following close behind her.

xxxxxx

Melissa giggled to herself and looped the micro-camera around her ear. She was slightly tired from the day's festivities, but she was still far too excited to sleep. Especially when she had exploration equipment to try out.

She clipped a few more necessities to her bracelet, which she swore to never take off, and put the omnidex safely within her maw. She looked out the window and into the night sky, smiling at the orchestra of crickets. She dashed out of her room and through the back door, pausing briefly to shiver at the sudden cold air.

"Little cold's not gonna stop me!" she said with determination. She put on a brave face and ran into the forest, giggling to herself all the way.

xxxxxx

 _Not every family is worth keeping, but if you have one that is, hold on to it an never let go._

Common internet advice.

* * *

 **The next few chapters are gonna stay light 'n fluffy, then we'll get back to the third word in the title.**


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